Growing Role of Switzerland in Commodity Trade

• Thesis title in Czech: Rostoucí role Švýcarska v obchodu s komoditami
• Thesis title in English: Growing Role of Switzerland in Commodity Trade
• Key words: nezákonné finanční toky, nezákonná manipulace cen, transparentnost, komodity
• English key words: illicit financial flows, transfer pricing manipulation, transparency, commodities
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2012/2013
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Institute of Economic Studies (23-IES)
• Supervisor: doc. Petr Janský, M.Sc., Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned by the advisor
• Date of registration: 22.05.2013
• Date of assignment: 22.05.2013
• Date and time of defence: 18.06.2014 00:00
• Venue of defence: IES
• Date of electronic submission: 14.05.2014
• Date of proceeded defence: 18.06.2014
• Opponents: PhDr. Tereza Fišerová

Guidelines

I choose this subject because control of commodities becomes more important every year and I
find it very important to study relationships between exporters and importers, structure of this trade,
and recent, quickly changing development.
This thesis has three main goals. Firstly, to replicate (Cobham, Janský, Prats, 2013) study, which
focuses on Switzerland as the leading hub of global commodities trading and re-exporting. The
study found support for the hypotheses of significant difference between prices of commodities
imported to Switzerland and to other countries. And that Switzerland re-exports those commodities
for prices above the average of other jurisdictions. This process causes potential economic loss for
commodity exporting developing countries.
Secondly, I will broaden the study, focusing on prior development and years 2011, 2012,
depending on actual availability of data. I will also try to depicture possible illicit nature of such
behaviour (de Boyrie, Pak, Nelson, 2007), particularly trade-based money laundering and terrorist
financing (Zdanowicz, 2009).
The last aim of the thesis is to analyze development and major changes in the Swiss commodity
trade of the most tradable and basic commodities in recent past. Further I will try to explain their
causes and estimate economic impact on both Switzerland and particular, original exporters. I will
concentrate on the developing countries again.

References

1. Baker, R., 2005, Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty money and how to renew the freemarket
system, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
2. Balyuk, T., & Rogach, A., 2009, Transfer Pricing in Transition Economies: Evidence from
Ukraine. World Transition Economy Research, 20-33.
3. Berne Declaration, 2011, Commodities: Switzerland’s most dangerous business, Lausanne:
Edition d’en bas.
4. de Boyrie, M., Nelson, J., Pak, 2007, S. Capital Movement through Trade Misinvoicing: The
Case of Africa, Journal of Financial Crime, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
5. Chan, C.,2005, Do Government Regulations Prevent Transfer Pricing Manipulations?
International Business & Economics Research Journal.
6. Cobham, A., Janský, P., Prats, A., 2013, Swiss-Ploitation? The Swiss Role in Commodity Trade,
christian Aid Occasional Paper Number 10
7. Nitsch, V., 2012, ‘Trade mispricing and illicit flows’, in P. Reuter (ed.), Draining Development?
Controlling Flows of Illicit Funds from Developing Countries,Washington, DC: World Bank.
8. SNB, 2012, ‘Swiss Balance of Payments 2011’, Zurich: Swiss National Bank.
9. Zdanowicz, J., 2009, Trede-Based Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, Miami: Florida
International University

Preliminary scope of work

1. Úvod
2. Kontext práce
3. Data a metodologie
4. Replikace a rozšíření práce
5. Výsledky a diskuze
6. Závěr

Preliminary scope of work in English

1. Introduction
2. Background of the Study
3. Data and Methodology
4. Replication and Extension of the Study
5. Results and Discussion
6. Conclusion